From today’s Rapid City Journal’s 2-cents worth column:
“Now that Libertyland has been defeated, maybe the people in charge of responsible growth will focus on doing things for the people who already live here and with future growth in mind. We are in desperate need of need of grocery stores, retail and restaurants.”
If I could point to one description of the proposed development that voters decided they didn’t want to support:
Commercial tenants will include restaurants, retail and experience-led businesses, creating a curated mix of independently operated venues within the Libertyland framework.
Adopting a format similar to open-air entertainment districts such as Disney Springs or Universal CityWalk, the development positions itself as a tourism enhancer for Rapid City and the Black Hills region, targeting visitors and locals.
When people are grousing they want more retail and restaurants, If you’ve ever been to developments like this.. the main thing they are comprised of are retail and restaurants!
In those kinds of shopping districts, you might also find a Whole Foods or other type of grocery. Brookings is developing a minor shopping complex area (with a TIF’s assistance), and our Aldi is already up and running with a Target under construction.
If the Liberty Land developers want to put up a 50 acre site with retail and restaurants, I’m sure they could find communities more hospitable than Rapid City which instead of saying yes to more tax revenue and actively seeking out development, want to take jobs & development, shut it in a box, call it unwelcome, and dance around the ashes after they light the box on fire. (Seriously! Bring it to Brookings, and I’m sure we can find room for more restaurants and retail.)
The NIMBY’s and BANANA’s won their pyrrhic victory in Rapid City this week. As their children set their sights to pack up to move to Denver, Minneapolis, Omaha and Kansas City. Short-sightedness was in ample supply.
Rapid City should be careful of what they wish for when they seek to keep development, jobs and people out. They will certainly have their dreams come true.
They need to visit some of SD other bigger towns if they think they do not retail and food choices.
This is pretty ironic. I don’t really care to hear Rapid City citizens complain about housing prices and thus property taxes anymore. Sorry, you made your bed, now you have to lay in it.
It’s interesting to see a long-time Republican in-state old-boys club in anguish over this TIF vote. What did you expect?
You yourselves join the MAGA populists who usurped you, in giving thumbs-ups and attaboys to each “world chess master” move our current president makes, then you decry all the state level nuttery that comes from the Freedom Caucus in his name.
You expected typical classic Republican turnout and support for the TIF, in an environment where the party can’t raise money, provide support or otherwise get out of its own way when it needs to, and punches itself in the face time and time again.
The only luck you have is the smallness of the Dem footprint in SD at this time, so the many fatal errors aren’t fatal.
I voted YES on the TIF, and I thought it would be closer, and maybe a better turnout effort might have helped, to reach any segment of the nonvoters who might have otherwise understood different and more targeted arguments than were made. We have had higher turnouts where the actual stakes were more widely and deeply felt, for Vision fund projects, Civic Center, etc.
Come back with something better if you believe in this, and sell it better. Don’t waaaaaaaaaaah the day away decrying the few who bothered to vote and just said ‘no.’
Thoughts: Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf used to tell reporters “we can’t fight the war we want, we have to fight the war we HAVE.” And in Terminator 2, Sarah Connor carved it into a picnic table – “No Fate” meaning There Is No Fate But What We Make.
Rapid City has used TIFs more than anyone else in the state. This may simply be a case of pushing the envelope too far.
Is there a hillside Pete Lien can strip mine for several decades near Brookings? If so he may be interested in relocating there and taking his LibertyLand vanity project with him.
You’d love it.
You sound like someone who buys hamburger at a grocery store and does not understand it comes from a cow. Regardless of the TIF, I am extremely grateful for the work Pete Lien does “strip mining for several decades” so that we have gravel for our roads and material for concrete. Where do you think gravel comes from? Magic Dump Trucks……….
How much was the Brookings TIF? Wasn’t it $5.5 million? Far cry from $125 million.
The person that wrote this article sounds exactly like the people they are complaining about. Throwing a fit because it didn’t go the way they wanted. Way to cherry pick things and write an entire article on it. People who had issues with the TIF largely were not against growth. They wanted more transparency and representation in how the largest TIF in SD history was going to be spent. Instead of bashing, reach out and talk to citizens and paint a full picture.
I’m sure if it’s more nuanced than this but if a developer wants to make a huge investment in business here because they think the ROI is great. Then why didn’t they just go to a bank.
If this many people voted against the TIF, how successful do you think it would be once built if it passed? Or even during production? Would it only be sustainable by tourist? All year?
There are several other TIFs that passed recently and some are literally for new restaurants being built right now in Rapid City literally. Why did they pass and not this one? Why did the Sport complex TIF pass largely unchallenged?